REVIEW: Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3) by Laini Taylor

Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3) by Laini Taylor 

Publication Date: April 8, 2014

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: Book Purchased by Reviewer
Guest Reviewer: Doris aka La Chiquita

Buy it at: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael’s brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz…something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dram of? And does anything else matter?

             What a journey it has been and now being faced with the final book I wonder how I would want it to end? Do the star struck lovers find their new beginning in one day? Do all the big bad meanies get their just due? Do the missed come back with a final message of hope and insides on how to get the world back into balance? I don’t know. I feel like something was missing though. So much was introduced in the last book that I am slightly hung over still trying to figure out what I read.

               One story line that was introduced in the beginning of the series was that of “The Fallen”. This is a group of angels that were literally stripped of their wings and thrown down to earth because of something horrible that was done. The plot was sprinkled in and out of the other two books and was made a point to seem important though we didn’t get closure with it until Dreams of Gods and Monsters. We learn about Razgut and how he came about to be the slimy leech he is and we are introduced to Eliza or should I say Elazael who is a direct descendant of a fallen with a secret of her own.

               The next story line to follow is that of the angels invading earth and the havoc it caused. I gotta admit they way Laini described the event is pretty much how I would imagine it going down. The never ending war of reason over religion. It doesn’t matter that these celestial beings came out of NOWHERE but that they were wearing the right thing and had harps and LANDED in the Vatican. I mean if that isn’t a Catholics wet dream I don’t know what is (PG13 ideas only nasties!!)

               Then we have the illusive cousins of the far isles. The only thing we knew about them before was that Akiva got his seductive eyes from his mother who hailed from the islands and (my favorite bit) gave Jael the scar that marks him as the evil he is. Now we get to see the civilization for what it is and the power they poses. They are not to be messed with and they know it.

               Finally we get to our characters and by the time I got to their chapters I didn’t want it to end. I really wanted a closure that was just Karou and Akiva. Not to say the other bits were not well written and did in the end fall together but I really just wanted Karou and Akiva, hold the world ending thank you! As if their trying to bring peace isn’t enough now they have to deal with prophecies, back stabbing, more war, more secrets and no CHOCOLATE. For peets sake let them have CAKE! Haven’t they earned it by now?

               I felt like the reason for layering everything was to really bring home the idea that little choices are pieces to the bigger puzzle. In the end the happiness no matter how bad you want it you sometimes really have to wait. Waiting doesn’t mean that you will never get it. It just means that it will come when you can appreciate it most. Don’t get me wrong many were the times I wanted to skip over all the extra stuff and skim to just the Karou and Akiva bits, but I didn’t reader. I stayed the course and felt the feels. As I suggest you do. I can’t say the ending is satisfactory or I have a better means in mind for my beloved. Each will feel their own way about it. I guess I just wanted as grand of an ending as the war and evil and twist were. But then again what is peace but the silence after the storm?